Manhunt Is Underway After Police Officers Are Shot in Ferguson

As part of the investigation, police SWAT units surrounded a house a few blocks from where the officers were shot.Credit
Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, via Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. — The police conducted a manhunt in this tense and battered city on Thursday in search of whoever shot two police officers as they worked at a protest after the resignation of the chief.

The shooting just after midnight on Thursday morning, described as “really an ambush” by Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police Department, was denounced by all sides in the continuing conflict over law enforcement here after the death, at the hands of the police, of an unarmed black teenager last summer, and the police crackdown on the ensuing protests.

By Thursday night, relative calm had returned to the streets as clergy members and activists gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil that paired condemnations of the officers’ shootings with support for nonviolent protests. About 100 protesters later marched outside the Ferguson Police Department, but by midnight, with a light rain falling, most of the demonstrators had cleared the way, and the streets were largely quiet. The police said no one had been arrested — neither protesters, nor suspects.

Earlier, police SWAT units surrounded a house a few blocks from the scene of the shooting, and officers climbed onto the roof and broke through a vent to gain access. The police took in three people from the house for questioning and released them hours later.

Video

Amateur Videos of Ferguson Shooting

Videos posted online are said to show the moment two police officers were shot as bystanders took cover in Ferguson, Mo.

The three, Iresha Turner, who lives at the home, and her friends Martez Little and Lamont Underwood, said they had attended the protest but had nothing to do with the shootings. Ms. Turner and Mr. Underwood said they fled from the protest to Ms. Turner’s house when the shots were fired, and Mr. Little said he came to Mr. Turner’s home later and was also detained.

The two police officers were shot shortly after midnight during a protest in front of the police station after the chief, Thomas Jackson, announced his resignation. His departure was the most recent in a shake-up of the city’s most senior administrators after a recent Justice Department report that described a city that used its legal system to generate revenue, in the process violating constitutional rights and disproportionately targeting blacks.

Gov. Jay Nixon visited, his motorcade rolling past the site of the shootings that he called, in a statement, “cowardly and reprehensible.”

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MARCH 12, 2015

By The New York Times

The shootings came at a vulnerable time, just as the city was making “good-faith steps,” as Mr. Holder put it, to restore faith in its criminal justice system. In a statement, the City of Ferguson said it was “diligently working to make systematic changes necessary to instill confidence,” but added, “We cannot continue to move forward under threats of violence and destruction.”

With the issue of police shootings bringing political polarization, Mr. Holder, who has been at the forefront of the effort to bring change to Ferguson’s policing, came in for some criticism.

“There’s an atmosphere of unbalance here,” Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, said on Fox News, blaming the Justice Department for emphasizing the faults of the Ferguson Police Department without saying that the officer who fatally shot Mr. Brown last August “did exactly what he should do.”

The late-night protest on Wednesday started as a celebration of Chief Jackson’s resignation, but also as a call for more action.

“Not just Jackson, we want Knowles, Ferguson has got to go!” the demonstrators yelled in reference to James Knowles III, the mayor.

Video

Two Officers Shot in Ferguson

Witnesses and the St. Louis County police chief described the scene after two officers were shot on Thursday during a protest that began only hours after the police chief in Ferguson, Mo., resigned.

When the shots echoed through the crisp air, striking the two officers, demonstrators and police officers hit the ground. Many people ran for cover, and police officers clad in riot gear dragged their wounded comrades to safety.

“We’re lucky by God’s grace we didn’t lose two officers last night,” Chief Belmar said at a midmorning news conference. It was clear that the police were the targets, he said.

Based on the sound of the shots and the officers’ wounds, he said, the weapon was a handgun, not a rifle.

The officers who were shot were standing side by side, part of a cordon from multiple police departments, keeping protesters away from the police station. There had been as many as 69 officers in the evening, dwindling to about 50 at the time of the shooting, Chief Belmar said.

One of the wounded officers was from the Webster Groves Police Department. He is 32 and a seven-year veteran of the force. The other was from the St. Louis County Police and is 41 with 14 years’ experience, the county police said. Both were treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

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A protester confronted the police outside the Ferguson police station on Wednesday night.Credit
Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

The younger officer was shot in the cheekbone, just below his right eye, and the bullet lodged behind his right ear, Chief Belmar said. A bullet struck the other officer in the right shoulder and exited his back on the right side. No officers returned fire. The officers were released from a hospital Thursday morning.

Chief Belmar said that people had a right to protest peacefully, but also that “there is an unfortunate association with that gathering” and the shooting.

Witnesses among the demonstrators denied any link to the shootings, saying that they believed the shots originated from the top of a hill about 220 yards directly opposite the station. Chief Belmar did not specify a location but estimated the distance at 125 yards.

“There’s just no way anybody I know did that,” said Bob Hudgins, a protester who is running for City Council. “Nobody’s happy about this today.”

The Brown family, in a statement from its lawyer, denounced “the actions of stand-alone agitators” who tried to derail the protests. “We reject any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement,” the statement said. “It cannot and will not be tolerated.”

Chief Belmar said the shooting realized his worst fears over the months of unrest since Mr. Brown’s killing. He drew a parallel to the fatal shooting in December of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, by a man who said he was enraged by killings by the police, including Mr. Brown’s.

“We were very close to having happen what happened to N.Y.P.D.,” Chief Belmar said.

John Eligon reported from Ferguson, and Shaila Dewan and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York. Mitch Smith and Jack Healy contributed reporting from Ferguson.

A version of this article appears in print on March 13, 2015, on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Manhunt Is Underway After Police Officers Are Shot in Ferguson. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe